The Observer is one of those annoying newspapers which goes the extra mile to only make a summary available on the web rather than reproducing the entire article ... with that in mind:

The Emperor Nero, reviled down the centuries as a psychopathic, debauched, wife-beating matricide, was probably Nero the Hero as far as the people of Roman Chichester were concerned.A crucial element of this new theory, put forward by archaeologist Miles Russell, is a large stone Roman head found at Bosham.Writing in the magazine British Archaeology, he argues that this was part of a huge statue of Nero in AD59-64, and one of the most important archaeological discoveries yet made in the Roman province of Britain.The rest of the statue has never been found.This identity is not accepted by all archaeologists, but despite attempts made to render the face unrecognisable, after the Emperor's death, Mr Russell's view is that it is Nero.

Prehistorian Miles Russell has a controversial theory about Roman Britain. Contrary to popular myth, he says, Nero was highly regarded in Britain, and celebrated with major statues. Russell says several Roman heads, including a famous bronze sculpture from Suffolk said to be emperor Claudius, are in fact of Nero.

... we'll have to wait until next month to see how it all pans out, I guess.

Posted by david meadows on Jul-16-06 at 7:16 AMDrop me a line to comment on this post!Comments (which might be edited) will be appended to the original post as soon as possible with appropriate attribution.